Psychology professor and self-help guru Jordan Peterson took to Twitter on Monday night to criticize Yumi Nu, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, and received significant backlash. He then informed his followers that he would no longer use Twitter, before going on to tweet 27 times over the course of the next 12 hours.
Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that. https://t.co/rOASeeQvee
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 16, 2022
It's a conscious progressive attempt to manipulate & retool the notion of beauty, reliant on the idiot philosophy that such preferences are learned & properly changed by those who know better (see https://t.co/RLOu4wlNM6)(https://t.co/tUzihxdXOl) but don't let the facts stop you. https://t.co/90uEnV6DL3
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 16, 2022
Peterson’s original "authoritarian tolerance" tweet seemingly criticized a photo of a plus-sized model, which many took as him arguing that he could not be convinced by evolving beauty standards to find the woman attractive and implying there was something “authoritarian” about the expectation that he do so. Many posters online then speculated about why Peterson had been looking at the swimsuit model in the first place.
I’m mostly sick of seeing Jordan Peterson stuff but the post everyone is talking about today is funny because it seems like he tried jacking off to the cover photo and failed and tried to make it a political issue
— The Baller of the First Sin (@ByYourLogic) May 16, 2022
No amount of authoritarian tolerance will give me a boner! pic.twitter.com/cWrrx6uBNm
— Fernaculous (@Fernaculous) May 17, 2022
Babe I promise i didnt want to sub to her Onlyfans it was the amount of authoritarian tolerance that forced my hand
— sandy frizzle (@SandyFrizzle) May 17, 2022
Others mocked Peterson’s “authoritarian tolerance” for more highbrow reasons as the controversy around his hot take spread online.
Jordan Peterson: “By rejecting the western beauty standards founded in the mystic dyad of the dragon and the princess, SI has stabbed the heart of our lobster civilization and condemned us to chaos [weeps uncontrollably] [abruptly vomits stream of pure ham] pic.twitter.com/nRqr1PejIn
— FreshMouthHat (@Popehat) May 16, 2022
probably the point at which you have to theorize the idea of 'authoritarian tolerance' is the point at which you just gotta rethink your conceptual frame https://t.co/k0fqNEyhEp
— Elizabeth Bruenig (@ebruenig) May 16, 2022
Jordan Peterson fans are like love what you do but you just called my gf an ugly hog please be nicer pic.twitter.com/U6Bw3Y37z3
— Wild Geerters (@steinkobbe) May 16, 2022
A few hours later, Peterson tweeted that he was leaving the platform in order to keep himself from temptation.
So I told my staff to change my password, to keep me from temptation, and am departing once again. If I have something to say I'll write an article or make a video. If the issue is not important enough to justify that then perhaps it would be best to just let it go. https://t.co/5MC7LxlOLj
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 17, 2022
Many posters drew a connection between the roasting Peterson received for “authoritarian tolerance” and the culture warrior’s exit from the social media platform.
bullying jordan peterson is too easy, within the span of 8 hours he felt comfortable sharing dumb opinions to it ending with him announcing a twitter hiatus
— transgender marx (@JUNlPER) May 17, 2022
LMAOOOO someone is embarrassed by their 'Authoritarian tolerance' tweet. And rightfully so. Don't think I've seen Peterson mocked this ruthlessly since the cider stuff 😂 https://t.co/2PkuUnW9Hi
— Eiynah
-(@NiceMangos) May 17, 2022
me sowing: Sorry. Not Beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.
me reaping: The endless flood of vicious insult is really not something that can be experienced anywhere else. I like to follow the people I know but I think the incentive structu— sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) May 17, 2022
Peterson continued to tweet, however, chiefly about the reasons he had stopped tweeting.
I've been torn between the responsibility I feel to stay informed and provide value to my subscribers and my observation that Twitter is unacceptably toxic. https://t.co/KFTJWZQ66G
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 17, 2022
Peterson promises to focus more on writing and video content after he leaves Twitter, so this is more than likely not the last defense of tradition we will hear from him.
reject modernity, embrace tradition pic.twitter.com/MQwUSwCrz9
— nonocake (@nonocake) May 16, 2022
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